Notes: For the fourth Father's Day in a row, Brother was performed and featured all of the band's children on stage and subsequent introductions (which included a "Charge!" tease from Page). After Timber, Trey sang the ending notes to Brother. Trey then said he had a trivia question for the crowd and asked "how many songs end like this?" and the band sang the ending of Brother again. He answered the question by saying the songs were My Friend, My Friend, Rift, and Brother (all of which had their endings "sung"). Trey added that tonight was special because from now on, Timber would also end with the Brother ending (which was sung again). Trey said Page could also end Lawn Boy that way from now on, prompting a Lawn Boy quote from Page. Mike then teased Ha Ha Ha. Trey went on to say that Metallica would be playing at Bader Field soon after Phish and that he didn't think they ended a single song like the ending of Brother (Trey sang the ending). Trey said if everyone wrote Metallica a note saying "Dear Metallica, please end Master of Puppets like this" (singing the ending one final time), if they got 20,000 notes, they just might do it. Fluffhead and Down With Disease subsequently had endings similar to Brother mixed in with their normal finishes. Reba did not contain the whistling ending and Caspian was unfinished.

Interesting show, seemingly designed to divide the obsessive jam-chasers from the good ol' goodtime kids. Everything's well played, as has been the story all through this (so far excellent) tour; lately even the conventional stuff is invested with wonderful energy.

Dig the packed, punchy first-set Timber, which bubbles and pops like Saturday's Wolfman's and Ocelot (not to mention the porno-Tube and Stealing Time from Friday). Char0 isn't quite as filthy as the Worcester version, but it ain't exactly polite; I usually skip that tune but two outta three 2012 versions have gotten into some straight *grownup* shit.

A reined-in but involving Drowned turns into some basement makeout session stuff in 2001 -- another tune revitalized for 2012 -- which tees off a sublime Reba. Looks like the Worcester Roses jam was a fluke, maybe a farewell tribute for Dean and Gene (classy). As Fiona Apple says: Oh well. And who can complain about nearly 40 minutes of solid primary-coloured playing? Either way, what follows shows the band isn't running in neutral here.

Chalkdust > Caspian > Silent feels like a deliberate descent into deeper hues, setting up the festival farewell. That segue into Silent is really, *really* nice. I'd rather linger longer with Caspian but last I checked *I'm not in the band* if ever I was. (Was I ever?) (WTF?!) And whether or not your dream Phish show involves hourlong 'Type II' jams, one of Trey's rarer gifts is his ability to use his tunes in interesting ways to construct setlong suites (on the fly!).

I dislike Bug but it does its job, which in this case is to tee up the wistful-then-awwfuckit Day in the Life/Disease combo to close.

Jibboo is one of the worst songs ever 'written' by a human being; you are welcome to disagree if that's how your thang hangs but civilized people will laugh at you. That said, it's a perfect encore tune despite its epic vapidity, and Quinn's even better, playing like 46 Days with an actual chorus.

Nothing here belongs on the shelf with, say, Crosseyed > Slave or Light > Theme or *any* of 6/15's startling second set. But this show without any marquee jams is still beautiful in its own terms. There's a strong continuous arc from Drowned through Reba, and another taking in the dumb fun of Roses, Chalkdust clatter (we're too old for this aren't we), weary sunsettling Caspian giving way to Silent dawn, Bug and the Beatles and Disease wishing dancing children fare well (as if it matters).

I wasn't there so this isn't 'legit,' apparently, but there it is, or I suppose here I am for ya: taking up beautiful things we find, giving them names, dwelling on form even in the Garden. All their intent is for our delight. Divine creation hears me, and -- nah. Just creation. Just a thing and what a thing goddamn. Four dudes, a ferris wheel, diminuendo, safe travels. Over to you.

Drowned is always 2nd set solid opener, but what got the juices flowing on this 3rd night 2nd set was the 2001. Possibly the best I've heard since the 2003 Anniversary Run (Albany). This is on my playlist daily. DAILY. What freakin jam. Has some funk similar to some MJ type stuff. Loving what Page and Trey were doing. and then..... comes the BOMB...... REBA

Reba is my mothers milk. This is by far the best Reba I've heard since the 12/31/94 (Glenn Falls NY). That Reba is 18+ stuffed with 12 minutes of Trey & Page crying with their instruments. Epic..... BUT more about this one. The Reba sent me in a whole different world. It was timed nicely, sounded smooth, nice crescendo, solid drops from mikey & fish. Trey really took that jam home and didn't f' this one up. He took his time and put it together.

All and all a VERY positive trip. This was 65, 66, 67 for me and it was 3, 4, 5 for my wife. She loved every bit of it. Can't wait for ATL>CLT!

How this third night snuck up so quick is beyond me, but there it is. Iím sure itíll get a bit panned, sorta deserved, sorta not. There wasnít much in the way of flow, but like any show these days, thereís something to sink your teeth into.

Set 1ís Timber, which I donít claim a lot of love for in general, was great. And Fluff was one tight-ass pill popper. If you want to get more out of the first set, focus your attention on Mike and Fish. These two are just sooooo lock-step, innovative and having fun, Iím not sure Iíve heard them like this before.

Set 2 threatened to burst over and over, but the threat never materialized once we got past Reba. Speaking of, the Drowned -> 2001 -> Reba is absolutely worth a listen. The end of Roses was the first threat. It was slowing down, getting all unctuous, and thenÖ Chalkdust. Which also just started to get dissonant when we wound up in Caspian. Nice transition, tho. I really liked Bug, but from where I stood, it seemed like theyíd lost many in the crowd.

Once again, I couldnít tell how many people were there. Definitely less than Saturday, by a large amount, Iíd guess. I didnít have it in me to fight my way up front, so we hung back on Fishís side of the soundboard near a guy in a gigantic green dinosaur costume. He was a landmark. Iíd overhear people on their phones telling friends, ďyeah, take a left at the dinosaur, Iím right thereÖ no, trust me, youíll see him...Ē It was a great place to be for the last night, and the night that felt more like a festival than any other. After the big Quinn sing-a-long, no one wanted to leave. It wasnít the mass exodus toward boardwalk debauchery like the other two nights. It was lots of sighs, hugs, and hanging out.

We made our way back to our temporary casino home to play a little bit more.

Dealer (of cards): Did you go see that Phish tonight?

Me: Yep. It was great.

Dealer: Iíve never heard of em. How long they been around?

Me: Mid 80s.

Dealer: Huh. Metallicaís playing next weekend. Now thatíll be a show.

Me: Iím sure it will.

Off to Virginia early Tuesday, and hopefully Iíll be able to post these reviews up.

Ok ladies and gents, here we are, night 3. Does it live up to 1 and 2? Kind of!

The first set was a bit too standard for my liking. Timber was definitely a highlight, as was Walls. Outside of that, not much to write home about.

Set 2 started out superbly! 2001 was a great version that demands a listen. Funk ahoy! But Prince, while nice, turned down the energy. It wasn't dialed back up until Disease, but by then it was too late. Potential was there, and the first half was great, but it died.

Surprisingly, the encore was the best part of the show! Both songs played well, and were jammed out.

Night 2 > 1 > 3, but check em all out! Enjoy yourselves! And enjoy the rest of the summer!

These four dads worked for their money on this Father's Day playing through two atypical sets and a fun encore. A polished show to cap off a weekend that happily surprised even the most critical fans throughout. Second biggest Reba bustout in phistory.

This Reba is one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard. I was fortunate to be right in front of Trey as well and I like to think I helped out on the jam. I loved the humor the band displayed on this night
I was all similes at the end of this evening.

My first Fathers Day show and the end of a 3 day run.... again, the place was full of energy and the sound was a lot better the last night as the wind did not carry the music away like nights 1 & 2.....
Treys banter that night was great and the boys were having a blast.... Lots of fun on the stage.....

Not very much risk or adventure in this show. Pretty solid playing throughout, but lacking the improvisational spark needed for a great show. Fun first set but every song seemed to end with the same guitar solo. I was pretty bored by the end of the set.

Drowned was ok. Again not much improvising. Just trey ripping away and then a half assed transition to 2001. 2001 was nice though, some cool stuff happened. I always love Reba. But again, nothing special. Roses and cdt were fun but again, more of the same trey solo. Cdt had a moment of cool ambient noise before a peak. But nothing to write home about.

Caspian->silent was the highlight of the night. Very smooth, cool transition. And silent was spot on. Bug was bug. But at the end page did a little rubato solo out of the final chord that segued beautifully into a day in the life.

Dwd is always a pleasure, but again very textbook trey ripping.

Jibboo was a big surprise. And it had a nice mellow jam. Quinn was fun.

Right. So this show didn't have any drawn-out, exploratory jamming, or tightrope-walker-without-a-net risk taking. What we have here is a rockin' show that's really well-played. Tight! Listen to Fluffhead - they are right on. No flubs/mistakes stood out to me. And that's what we want when they play a composed (and crazy difficult) prog-rock monster, isn't it? Foam, another terribly difficult song to play, was executed wonderfully. Pretty impressive; we know they've been practicing their asses off. For a bunch of rockers that aren't getting any younger, they are throwing down pretty hard if you ask me. Oh, we also do have the silly humor regarding the ending of Brother. Another great reason to love and embrace Phish, of course. This was a pretty good show.

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